Meg Merrilies seemed equally on the watch. She bent her ear to every sound that whistled round the old walls. Then she turned again to the dead body, and found something new to arrange or alter in its position. "He's a bonny corpse, she muttered to herself, "and weel worth the streaking."--And in this dismal occupation she appeared to feel a sort of professional pleasure, entering slowly into all the minutiae, as if with the skill and feelings of a connoisseur. A long dark-coloured sea-cloak,--Which she dragged out of a corner, was disposed for a pall. The face she left bare, after closing the mouth and eyes, and arranged the capes of the cloak so as to hide the bloody bandages, and give the body, as she muttered, a mair decent appearance."At once three or four men, equally ruffians in appearance and dress rushed into the hut. "Meg, ye limb of Satan, how dare you leave the door open?" was the first salutation of the party.
"And wha ever heard of a door being barred when a man was in the dead-thraw?--how d'ye think the spirit was to get awa through bolts and bars like thae?
"Is he dead, then?" said one who went to the side of the couch to look at the body.
"Ay, ay--dead enough," said another--"but here's what shall give him a rousing lykewake." So saying, he fetched a keg of spirits from a corner, while Meg hastened to display pipes and tobacco.
From the activity with which she undertook the task, Brown conceived good hope of her fidelity towards her guest. It was obvious that she wished to engage the ruffians in their debauch, to prevent the discovery which might take place if, by accident, any of their should approach too nearly the place of Brown's concealment.
CHAPTER XXVIII.
Nor board nor garner own we now, Nor roof nor latched door, Nor kind mate, bound by holy vows To bless a good man's store.
Noon lulls us in a gloomy den, And night is grown our day;Uprouse ye, then, my merry men!
And use it as ye may.
JOANNA BAILLIE.
Brown could now reckon his foes--they were five in number; two of them were very powerful men, who appeared to be either real seamen, or strollers who assumed that character; the other three, an old man and two lads, were slighter made, and, from their black hair and dark complexion, seemed to belong to Meg's tribe. They passed from one to another the cup out of which they drank their spirits.
"Here's to his good voyage!" said one of the seamen, drinking; "a squally night he's got, however, to drift through the sky in."We omit here various execrations with which these honest gentlemen garnished their discourse, retaining only such of their expletives as are least offensive.
"'A does not mind wind and weather--'A has had many a north-easter in his day.""He had his last yesterday," said another gruffly; "and now old Meg may pray for his last fair wind, as she's often done before.""I'll pray for nane o' him," said Meg, "nor for you neither, you randy dog. The times are sair altered since I was a kinchin-mort.
[*Girl.] Men were men then, and fought other in the open field, and there was nae milling in the darkmans. [*Murder by night.]
And the gentry had kind hearts, and would have given baith lap and pannel [*Liquor and food] to ony puir gipsy; and there was not one, from Johnnie Faa the upright man, [*The leader (and greatest rogue) of the gang.] to little Christie that was in the panniers, would cloyed a dud [*Stolen a rag] from them. But ye are a'
altered from the gude auld rules, and no wonder that you scour the cramp-ring, and trine to the cheat [*Get imprisoned and hanged.]
sae often. Yes, ye are a' altered-you'll cat the gudeman's meat, drink his drink, sleep on the strammel [*Straw] in his barn, and break his house and cut his throat for his pains! There's blood on your hands, too, ye dogs--mair than ever came there by fair fighting. See how ye'll die then--lang it was ere he died--he strove, and strove sair, and could neither die nor live;--but you--half the country will see how ye'll grace the woodie."The party set up a hoarse laugh at Meg's prophecy. "What made you come back here, ye auld beldame?" said one of the gipsies; "could ye not have staid where you were, and spaed fortunes to the Cumberland flats?--Bing out and tour, [*Go out and watch] ye auld devil, and see that nobody has scented; that's a' you're good for now.""Is that a' I am good for now?" said the indignant matron. "I was good for mair than that in the great fight between our folk and Patrico Salmon's; if I had not helped you with these very fambles (holding up her hands), Jean Baillie would have frummagem'd you, [*Throttled you] ye feckless do-little!"There was here another laugh at the expense of the hero who had received this amazon's assistance.
"Here, mother," said one of the sailors, "here's a cup of the right for you, and never mind that bully-huff."Meg drank the spirits, and, withdrawing herself from further conversation, sat down before the spot where Brown lay bid, in such a posture that it would have been difficult for any one to have approached it without her rising. The men, however, showed no disposition to disturb her.
They closed around the fire, and held deep consultation together;but the low tone in which they spoke, and the cant language which they used, prevented Brown from understanding much of their conversation. He gathered in general, that they expressed great indignation against some individual. "He shall have his gruel,"--said one, and then whispered something very low into the ear of his comrade.
"I'll have nothing to do with that," said the other"Are you turned hen-hearted, Jack?""No, by G-d, no more than yourself,--but I won't--it was something like that stopped all the trade fifteen or twenty years ago you have heard of the 'Loup'?""I have heard him (indicating the corpse by a jerk of his head)tell about that job. G-d, how he used to laugh when he showed us how he fetched him off the perch!""Well, but it did up the trade for one while," said Jack.
"How should that be?" asked the surly villain.
